From a cow, a cat, a bee, and Iron Man!
Monthly Archives: October 2008
The Living Lightning Strike
For his birthday Cameron got a Webkinz he named Lightning Strike.
Yesterday, much to Cameron’s excitement, he met a real horse named Squirt that looks exactly like a living, breathing version of Lightning Strike.
No longer a Frozen Placenta Club member
Fritz’s placenta had been in my parents’ freezer for over 2 years and Adrian’s had been in ours for 4 months. This weekend my parents wanted some trees planted so when we went there Sunday Jamie planted the trees and added the placentas to the holes he dug. It’ll be interesting to see if placentas really do fertilize trees the way they say they do.
Busy Week
Some weeks are busier than others. This past week was pretty quiet. Next week will be busy.
Sunday is church. Jamie and I are singing in the choir during that and Cameron has to give a talk at the end of primary. Then we’re going to pick up Ani from my parents’ house.
Monday Jamie has off from work (since he now works directly for the federal government instead of being a contractor he gets to do the compressed work schedule and so has every other Monday off). In the afternoon Ani and Cameron have a costume party at some friends’ house.
Tuesday we’re back to school after our little break. Tuesday night Jamie has Scouts at church.
Wednesday afternoon Ani has a half hour lesson and half hour horseback ride at a stable. It’s a Girl Scouts activity. In the evening I have the Relief Society book group. We read “The Goose Girl” by Shannon Hale. I loved it.
Thursday is Trunk or Treating at church. Good thing we went ahead and got costumes for the kids since they are using them three times this week!
Friday is Halloween. Jamie has to work that evening doing something that he can’t do during the day (upgrade or whatever). So either I cut off our lights while I take the kids Trick or Treating or they go out with our next door neighbors.
Next Saturday, blissfully, nothing is planned yet. I hope it doesn’t fill up. Even when it’s all fun stuff, it’s still tiring to have lots to do.
Funny
It’s funny how we complain about the humidity in the summer and then use a humidifier to make it more humid in the winter.
How About a Cheetah and an Owl Instead?
It seems funny for the images that have been embraced to represent the two major parties to be a donkey and an elephant (though they didn’t start out as positive for either one of them). Who wants to be a donkey? And who wants to be an elephant? I think a cheetah and an owl would be be better. Though I’m not sure which should be which.
Displaying My Collection
I have a nativity collection. I have around 20 of them. Most are small. Some are big. One is huge. I display them year round because they make me happy to look at them. Normally I hate clutter, but I love having my nativities around and looking at them.
Of course with little hands around I have to be creative with where I put them. I have one on top of a bookcase in our dining room.
Another is on top of the corner cabinet that I inherited from my grandmother, also in the dining room.
Many of them, all of my small ones, are displayed on three shelves behind glass in that corner cabinet.
My favorite and largest one is displayed on top of the cabinet where we keep our dishes in the kitchen.
They are all out of reach of the kids (well, really they only need to be out of reach of Fritz at this point) but still in places where I can enjoy looking at them and having them around. They make me smile often.
My grandparents
In early 1962, my grandmother bought a black dress. The first time she wore it to church someone commented to her that she’d be a gorgeous widow. She very seriously responded that she would never be a widow because she and her husband would die together because she didn’t want to live without him. While she was correct, I doubt she wished it would happen any time soon.
On July 3, 1962 my grandparents were killed in a car accident. My grandmother was 39 and my grandfather was 6 days shy of 41. There were no seatbelts back then. My grandfather’s neck broke and my grandmother was pitched into the windshield. They left behind my mother, age 15, and my uncle, age 19. They were both severely injured in the accident.
By all accounts my grandparents were well-liked wonderful people. When I was in college I was assigned a paper with the subject of “anything I wanted to find out more about.” I wrote it on my grandparents. We went around to many friends and family and interviewed them. It was very interesting to learn about them. I just wish I could have met them myself.
Making Christmas Presents
I’m just about done with our Christmas shopping/making. The only things left can’t be finished for another month and a half or so, so for now I’m all done. Yay!
Fritz is getting a bean box. It’s 6 pounds of different types of beans, some “wild west” themed figures (bison, teepee, cowboys, indians, etc.), a couple matchbox cars, and an empty yogurt container. I think I’m going to switch that for two smaller ones so he can do back and forth pouring.
Adrian is getting a knotty doll.
And I made a knotty doll for my friend’s daughter, too. (Not a Christmas present; made it for her just because.)
Music
We have discovered that the kids enjoy the same music Jamie and I do regardless of if it is “new” (as in recent) or “old” (as in from the 80s and 90s) music. Some of the recent songs we’ve downloaded from iTunes include ones by the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, C+C Music Factory, Billy Joel, and Genesis.
So I started pondering why all of us enjoy the sound of both the “old” and the “new.” After all, aren’t kids and parents supposed to disagree on music choices?
And then it hit me. The difference between music in the 20s and 30s and 40s was huge compared to the 50s and 60s and then there was a big difference between that and the 70s music.
The 80s is identifiable because of the synthesizer that always seemed to be used, but the difference between the 80s, 90s, and 00s, is not great. Of course there are specific genres from those decades that vary (angry chick music, grunge, etc.), but in general the music hasn’t changed much. I suppose that’s why radio stations playing songs from “the 80s, 90s, and today” are so prevalent and don’t have a strange mix of music at all.
Smaller on the Outside 